New US embassy in Brussels falls foul of planning rules

Bizarre dispute about a fence

For some time already, the US embassy in Brussels has been looking to re-locate to new premises. The current one near the Belgian parliament is hard to secure and impractical for a number of reasons. But the planned new premises are already subject to a bizarre dispute.

Located about 10 minutes from the current embassy, the Cours St-Michel/St-Michielwarande (Brussels is a bilingual city) is the site of the massive former ING bank headquarters near the Cinquantenaire park. It’s a prime location for a major embassy, but is years from opening as work has not yet even started – in fact, plans are still only being made.

In the meantime, the local borough, Etterbeek, is worried about the buildings being invaded by squatters. It asked the embassy several times to secure the site, which it eventually did by erecting a long 3-meter high fence. The trouble is, no-one asked for planning permission, which put the local authorities in a  difficult position.

Complying with the law

"The municipality is obliged to ensure that citizens comply with the law, but must also ensure that governments do so,” according to the local mayor, Vincent De Wolf, speaking to Bruzz magazine.

The two parties sat down and aligned their plans as they were clearly on the same side of the fence, so to speak. The new plans involve fences, CC cameras and actual security staff. "We concluded the meeting with an excellent understanding," said Etterbeek’s mayor. "It is of course an honor to have such an important institution in your municipality, but it will also cost us quite a bit of money as governments do not pay city planning fees. All in all, we will lose 4 million euros ($4.4 million).”

(Patrick FitzGerald. Source: Bruzz. Photo: Unsplash )